Being a witch, I get to have two New Years; the real one at Samhein and then, just as the steam is beginning to leak from my sails, a second "calendar" New Years, today. Feel free to line up and laugh at my naivete, but I love New Years. I love fresh starts.
I love new calendars, clean and crisp and chock full of 366 (this year) days simply begging to be filled with fun, with purposeful work, with gardening, with magic workings on the moons, with Sabbats spent with brilliant women, with family time, with "organization days" which I celebrate 12 times a year on the day of the month when I was born -- days to organize files, attend to finances, take care of nagging tasks, lay in supplies, do what's been needing to be done. I was a v. young witch when I realized that a calendar is, perhaps, the greatest magical tool ever invented, which might, I suppose, explain why my woad-tattooed ancestors spent less time making arrowheads to sell and more time erecting Stonehenge. A calendar gives you control of time, and she who controls time, rules.
So many Pagans watch time slip away, never managing to meet financial goals, care for their health, do what needs to be done. My madcap friend R. was telling me a story yesterday about a well-known Pagan couple, unmarried. She'd been ill for years and recently walked on over to the Summerlands. He can't get the Virginia hospital to release her body to him. They had years to prepare for this; she didn't just suddenly die. Pagans! Go buy a goddamn calendar; they're on sale now! Make a list on the front pages of what you need to do to be effective in this world! Write those tasks down on the goddamn calendar! Do the mundane tasks and the magical tasks! Do them! Don't make me come over there!
This year has one extra day -- February 29th. You'll only get that gift on 25% of the years that you live on Earth. That extra day, a day dedicated to Freya, is surely magic. I think you'd have to be mad not to pick something special to do on February 29th. And it's a Friday! It backs up to a weekend! You could make it a special three-day event. What three-day task would move your life forward? What would your Better Self do with three extra days? Go do it!!! Go write it down on your calendar today!
3 comments:
Well, Hecate, it finally happened. You were in my dream last night.
My brother and I sat down with you and your son & his wife (though she had to leave early to tend to the young one) at your house in bright daylight for a meal. The talk was of what it meant to be an artist 'back in the day' and what it means to be an artist now. You lit some candles for the centerpiece. I offered to add one that I'd brought from my home, but you gently declined*. Then you and my brother and I walked outside. It was cityscape, we were admiring how the buildings in your neighborhood had been improved--lots of beautiful windows. There were also these plots of strange orchards: trees landscaped as they would be in a city, surrounded by concrete, but growing wild fruit--shiny, waxy, purple pods with dark leaves. My brother and I were smelling the sweet fragrance of each one, but you were searching for one ripe enough to eat, for us to try...
Then the children were shouting from their room & I was no longer asleep.
It seems like a perfect dream to have as we start the new year.
Happy New Year!
*the candlestick that I offered was one that has been on my table for a few weeks. I have often looked at it and wondered what you would think of it--so my dream brain tells me you wouldn't like it!
whiskey,
That's an amazing dream! I'd love to have a meal with you and talk about what it means to be an artist. Here' let me pour you some wine.
Can I just tell you how much I, as a newly "out" Pagan, needed to read this post? I'm toodling around on the internet and thinking vaguely every once in a while, "Hmmm...I need to go get my roses pruned."
Right. I'm out of here. (But I'll be back!)
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